This article appears in the November 11, 2022 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
NOV. 5 EXTRAORDINARY PRESS CONFERENCE
‘A Nuclear War Cannot Be Won
and Must Never Be Fought’
[Print version of this article]
Nov. 6—Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) and the Schiller Institute convened an extraordinary three-hour press conference on November 5, bringing together an international group of speakers with scientific, military, intelligence, and political backgrounds, all dedicated to the principle stated by President Ronald Reagan in his 1984 State of the Union Address that “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” Speaking to both the people of the United States and Soviet Union, President Reagan continued: “The only value in our two nations possessing nuclear weapons is to make sure they will never be used. But then would it not be better to do away with them entirely?” Indeed, it would. However, 38 years after that momentous statement, the ship of state in the West has been hijacked by geopolitical madmen recklessly steering us towards a thermonuclear war which would bring about the extinction of the human race. Can this insane process be reversed?
The purpose of this press conference, as well as prior and future conferences hosted by EIR and the Schiller Institute, was and is to demonstrate to the world that there is a movement of sane people in the West not only opposing extinction warfare but proposing positive ideas to bring about a prosperous and harmonious future for current and future generations. Will this movement succeed? As many of the speakers made clear, that will be determined by the willingness of ordinary citizens to quit being spectators sitting on the sidelines and join in the fight.
Questions from journalists, and highly animated discussion between the participants continued for almost another two hours, concluding with a resolution by Helga Zepp-LaRouche to bring the day’s interlocutors into the upcoming Nov. 22 international conference of political and social leaders (see invitation in this issue of EIR) to stop nuclear war now. We will enormously strengthen our ability to do this, she said, by creating “a world movement of world citizens. And since I’m coming from the oldest city of Germany, Trier, I take the privilege of saying: ‘World Citizens of all countries unite!’”
The following is a summary presentation of the opening remarks of the conference speakers.
Diane Sare, the co-host of the press conference, who is currently campaigning for the office of U.S. Senator for New York as a LaRouche independent candidate, spoke following opening remarks by EIR’s Dennis Speed. Given the blackout of Sare’s campaign by the mainstream media, she referred to her statement asking if the suppression of her campaign was a prelude to nuclear war. She wrote the statement in the context of viewpoints expressed by leaders in the West that Russia cannot win its war with Ukraine when it should be obvious to anyone that Russia cannot afford to lose. She pointed out the farcical candidates’ debate, from which she was excluded, between her two opponents in the Senate race where the Republican criticized the Democrat for not being tough enough on Russia. Sare then used as a metaphor the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” to demonstrate that the purpose of the story was not to expose the vanity and corruption of the emperor, but the corruption of the people of the village who played along with the lie that the emperor had new clothes when they knew very well he was naked. This is similar to the situation today with the recent revelation that then British Prime Minister Liz Truss sent a text message to U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken seconds after the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, “It is done.” The question she posed, given this revelation, is will people be more enlightened than the village people of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale?
Steven Starr, the first presenter, is the retired director of the University of Missouri’s Clinical Laboratory Science Program, public health professional, and a preeminent expert on nuclear war, gave a chilling presentation, featuring a powerpoint demonstrating the actual effects of nuclear war. He explained that the destructive power of thermonuclear weapons today far exceeds those used against Japan in World War II. One warhead detonated over New York City would create a firestorm which would incinerate everything in a 7 mile radius. Were a missile attack against the United States to be detected, the President would receive a 30-second briefing on the nature of the attack and then have at most a 2- to 3-minute window to decide how to respond! Were a counterattack ordered, missiles would be in the air within two minutes with no way to recall them if the warning turned out to be false.
Starr concluded by saying:
An 800-kiloton warhead creates a 150 square-mile firestorm, so 500 of those would create probably 75,000 square miles of nuclear fires. The scientists estimate that 70% of the sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere would be blocked from reaching the surface of the Earth, and about 35% in the Southern Hemisphere. The smoke is above cloud level, cannot be rained out, and it would remain in the stratosphere for about 10 years.
In the first 1-3 years, daily temperatures in central North America and Eurasia would be below freezing. It would be at least 10 years before the weather would be warm enough to grow crops, so most humans and animals would starve to death.
Scott Ritter, former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and chief UN weapons inspector, followed with a presentation aimed at shaking people out of their complacency regarding the dangers of nuclear war. He began with the assertion that the majority of the American people are ignorant of the reality of nuclear conflict. The son of an Air Force officer stationed in Germany during the Cold War, whose responsibilities included nuclear weapons delivery, Ritter grew up acutely aware that nuclear annihilation could happen at any time. After joining the Marine Corps, he was assigned to a nuclear artillery unit which constantly trained to carry out attacks. He then went on to become a weapons inspector during the 1980s at the height of the very dangerous period when Soviet SS-20 and U.S. Pershing II intermediate missiles could reach targets within seven minutes, eliminating any chance for reasoned deliberation on how to respond to an attack.
In Ritter’s words, “The 1980’s was all about dodging nuclear Armageddon.” He believes one of the most underappreciated moments in history is when President Reagan signed the INF Treaty with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, because this event saved the world from nuclear suicide. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, we no longer respect Russia and are now reconstituting intermediate nuclear weapons. Ritter ended his presentation with a warning to those in the West who believe a nuclear war against Russia is winnable by describing the Russian system called the “dead hand.” If a decapitation strike against Moscow should succeed, the “dead hand” system would automatically launch communications rockets which would travel across the territory of Russia activating a retaliatory second strike which would mean the end of the world.
French Col. Alain Corvez (ret.), former advisor to the General-in-Command of the UNIFIL in Lebanon and former international relations advisor to the French Foreign Ministry, began his remarks by expressing gratitude for being able to participate in an event where speakers know what they’re talking about. The problem in his opinion is that leaders in the West know nothing about nuclear war. He recounted Charles de Gaulle’s intention to constitute a nuclear force (“force de frappe”) under the sole control of France, strictly for the purpose of nuclear deterrence. De Gaulle was well aware that a nuclear war would result in the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. He questioned whether today’s leaders have any understanding of the fact that a nuclear war cannot be won and that as a consequence the nature of war has been fundamentally changed. Even a war with a small nuclear armed power like North Korea would have unimaginable consequences.
Colonel Richard Black (ret.), U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran, former chief of the Army Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon and former Virginia State Senator, opened by saying:
Today as we speak, mankind is in a footrace against globalist demons who are determined to trigger World War III while they still can. The White House is directing NATO in a hellish game of thermonuclear chicken, gambling that President Putin will keep a cool, steady hand on Russia’s nuclear trigger.
He went on to say that there may be a shift away from support for the Ukrainian regime were the outcome of the midterm elections to favor the Republicans, as is highly likely, so there is an effort by NATO to accelerate the war.
As empirical evidence of this accelerated war drive, Black cites events such as the Sept. 26 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage (including British Prime Minister Liz Truss’s “It is done” text message to Secretary of State Tony Blinken), the Oct. 8 attempt to blow up the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait and the foiling by Russian security forces of sabotage attempts deep within Russian territory. Black believes the intention is to “trip up” the Russian leadership, causing an overreaction which would create a pretext for a counterattack by NATO. The recent highly unusual surfacing of two U.S. nuclear armed attack submarines is, he believes, an intended signal to Moscow that NATO has the capability to launch a nuclear “Pearl Harbor” at any time.
In concluding, Black said, “Joe Biden could end this war at any time. He chooses not to; he chooses war. Our government is no longer responding to its people. Instead, it obeys the dictates of globalists—the boys from Davos, and a whole matrix of other globalist outfits.” In thanking the Schiller Institute, “the pre-eminent voice for world peace,” he added, “And I’d like to thank the heroic young men and women, the gutsy kids in their early 20s, whose raw courage is confronting some of these politicians and exposing them for what they’re doing.”
Jacques Cheminade, the next speaker, is a three-time candidate for the French presidency and leader of the Solidarité et Progrès party as well as a leader of the Schiller Institute. Cheminade’s remarks were very brief, expressing his full support for Diane Sare’s Senate campaign in the Nov. 8 U.S. election. What she expresses as her political objectives echoes the voice of people whom he has met in France who are suffering the same hardships as the American people. She is the only candidate campaigning for peace, stability, and cooperation for the entire world. Cheminade advised all New Yorkers to vote for Sare to help bring about peace and the best of all possible worlds.
Dr. Cliff Kiracofe, former senior advisor to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and president of the Washington Institute for Peace and Development, began by stating his opinion that a diplomatic process is the only way to end the war in Ukraine and the sooner this diplomatic process takes place the better. Russia, having a policy of what Kiracofe characterized as “old school” diplomacy, is open to negotiations. However, the Ukrainian government at this point is refusing to negotiate, and without negotiations diplomacy is impossible. France and Germany failed to advance the Minsk II process which was endorsed by the UN Security Council in 2015. As a consequence, Ukraine has lost the Donbass territory (formerly known as Novorossiya) which has been incorporated into Russia. The question now is, will Russia launch a winter offensive to absorb more territory and would this lead to a general European war or even nuclear war? Kiracofe ended by stating his belief that as peace advocates, we must insist on a diplomatic process now.
General Dominique Delawarde (ret.), former French liaison officer to the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, began by thanking Scott Ritter for his exemplary work, which is followed very closely by his colleagues in France. Referring to Diane Sare, he said,
I would like to say, I am not an American citizen; I am just a simple and humble French citizen, citizen of the world; … I cannot endorse a candidate for U.S. elections, because it’s not my role and my place to say that. … But what I would like to say about Diane Sare is that she is among the very rare candidates to understand the situation and on an international level: She understands very well what is going on in Ukraine. And when she says that Russia cannot afford to lose this war, she says that and she’s right. And the danger is here: If the U.S. leadership, the current U.S. leadership, doesn’t understand that, we have the risk of an accident, a miscalculation, and that could lead us to a war that nobody wants—nobody on Earth wants this war.
He further expressed his fear that the globalists in the West directing foreign policy will, unless stopped, lead us to war. He ended his remarks by noting that Sare deserves to be Senator as she represents a powerful voice for peace and, as in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, we must be willing to compromise.
Ray McGovern, a retired senior CIA analyst and long-time practitioner of non-violent protest action, began by saying, “I just want to express my thanks for being invited together with this rather substantive group for a substantive discussion. My hat’s off to the Schiller Institute for arranging these seminars.” He recounted his experience as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, at which time he was stationed near Key West, Florida. “Had I been closer, McGovern said, “I would have been with the invasion force that thankfully was never sent in.” There was pushback in the 1980s from a few courageous people in the CIA, and other circles against the lunatics who wanted to go nose to nose with Russia. The problem now in the current political climate is that very few people know what’s really going on. That means those who do know have to “get off their butts and do something.”
McGovern then explained what he calls the Noah principle: “No awards for predicting rain, awards only for building arks.” This means each person has to get off their “derriere” and do their part in helping to build the ark (i.e., do something!). And although we can’t expect immediate success, by being faithful and telling the truth we set an example for future generations. He concluded by calling out the older generation with a “little bit of gray” in their hair. According to McGovern these people have an advantage because, while the actions of younger people may be dismissed by the general population when they get arrested or beaten up, most people don’t like to see old people getting beaten up. Under today’s circumstances it’s important for older people to put this advantage to good use and get out there and do something!
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and leader of the Schiller Institute, was the final speaker. Emphasizing the thoughts of several speakers, she started by saying that we are in the most dangerous moment in history and most people know nothing. During the 1980s, during the Pershing Missile crisis, hundreds of thousands of people were in the streets protesting. Today very little is happening. Her late husband, Lyndon LaRouche, created the basis for a new security architecture during that period based on the policy that became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was formally adopted by President Reagan on March 23, 1983. With the ongoing collapse of the trans-Atlantic financial system, the only way to prevent World War III is to establish a new security architecture that takes into consideration the needs of all nations. To succeed, the West must be a part of this new security architecture. She expressed her belief that the reason she is on the Ukraine government’s Center for Countering Disinformation “hit list” is precisely because of the role the Schiller Instituting is playing in this process. Zepp-LaRouche ended her remarks by wholeheartedly wishing Diane Sare success, “because she represents the kind of American who can bring back the pride to be an American, and not the present condition where the anti-Americanism is increasing worldwide. That cannot remain like that, because we have to include the United States in the new arrangement, and it is not enough if the countries of the Global South and Russia and China are creating a new system: We have to move to a situation where every country is part of the world we are creating.”
